New Irrigation Experiment.

In an attempt to reduce the amount of water we
use to irrigate the orchard and to increase the uniformity of application we
have tried a new system on one line of the new planting of peaches. Framers who
use herbicides can lay pipes on the floor of the orchard. They kill weeds by
just spraying. As organic farmers we have to cultivate the weeds. We have been
looking for an economical way to apply water with mini sprinklers. Local walnut
grower Russ Lester saw this system in Greece on Walnuts trees. I like it
because the ground is free of any interference for hoeing. The sprinklers cover
a large area at a relatively low pressure (20psi) that means we need to
pressurize the system to a lower setting and thereby save fuel. We have 18
lines of trees like this in the orchard. It costs about $250 per line to
install. We will work on each line as we have the cash available.